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Google's DeepMind division will attempt to make an AI that can play Starcraft II in real time without using the same unfair knowledge and capabilities (such as controlling units that are "off-screen") that Blizzard's own AI use. Blizzard and DeepMind are working on a build of the game that will be "open and available to all researchers next year".
Reported at The Washington Post and The Verge .
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Google DeepMind to Take on Starcraft II
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 07 2016, @06:36PM
This is interesting from a perspective of AI and computer science. This seems kind of silly in terms of "human vs AI."
The metric Actions Per Minute has a major effect at the highest levels, and computers have a dramatic advantage there (effectively being able to enter one input per frame of video... or something like 1800 APM, rather than the ~300 for humans). This would an inferior computer to just brute-force beat superior strategy from humans. It's a lot like the Jeopardy gameshow a while ago, where once an AI has a basic amount of knowledge it will always win (because at the highest levels the game devolves into "who can push the buzzer at the correct moment")?
That being said, it would be really fascinating in regard to AI and dealing with ambiguity. It would also be really interesting to see two AIs playing each other and the micro-fights they would have... much like watching a Tool Assisted Speedrun.
Actually, overall, this strikes me very much like a Tool Assisted Speedrun versus a human Speedrun. Both are entertaining, but they are not competitive with each other in any real way.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 07 2016, @08:03PM
They seem to be artificially limiting the APM to human-like levels for this AI, in order to make it compete on a level playing field.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 07 2016, @10:37PM
"Let's have a human have a tug-of-war with a truck... but to make it fair we'll limit the truck to be able to pull at most 50 Newtons of force."
I guess the idea is to compare strategy between a human and a computer? Still, this seems like an odd way to approach the problem. I guess it could be "fun," though?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday November 08 2016, @01:33AM
It's necessary to limit APM and perhaps force the computer to "scroll" the screen or "click" the minimap in order to make a fair comparison. The existing Starcraft AI's ability to move almost all of the units instantly isn't interesting.
It is a little weirder than the AlphaGo challenge because of the real-time nature of an RTS. Both AlphaGo and Lee Sedol got the same amount of time to work with. But even with a limited APM, the Starcraft AI won't be blinking, sipping mountain dew, or "thinking" about anything else. You give Lee Sedol 60 seconds, and he will probably think up a good move. With the RTS, you're living second to second. Maybe Civilization would have been a better choice?
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